Cuba tops agenda at Americas meeting

[June 02, 2009]  SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) -- Top officials from members of the Organization of American States will take on one of the Western Hemisphere's most divisive topics, Cuba, when they meet here on Tuesday, possibly leaving the United States in the lurch.

Amid near unanimous calls from the region for Cuba to be allowed to rejoin the 34-nation group without conditions, the United States is insisting that the communist island's government make democratic reforms before becoming eligible.

Despite U.S. President Barack Obama's tentative overtures to Cuba, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will attend Tuesday's meetings, says any move to allow Cuba to rejoin the group must be accompanied Cuban moves toward pluralism, releasing political prisoners and respecting basic human rights.

"We believe it is in the best interests of the Cuban people and our region to be more integrated in the region," she said on Monday in El Salvador where she witnessed the inauguration of new Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes in that country's first peaceful transfer of power from conservative to socialist since the end of a 12-year civil war.

"We think that there is an opportunity for Cuba to be more involved, but at the same time, we want to see the peaceful transfer of power that we saw this morning possible for the Cuban people," Clinton said. "We don't see those as mutually exclusive."

Faced with a solid bloc of countries opposed to the conditions, U.S. officials are hoping to stall a vote on reversing Cuba's nearly 50-year-old suspension from the OAS without demands for change.

But the region's growing number of socialist leaders, spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Funes are pressing for a vote, and U.S. officials are unsure how the meeting will proceed.

Even though Cuba has expressed no interest in rejoining the bloc and the organization generally makes decision by consensus, proponents can push ahead with a resolution that needs only a two-thirds majority, or 23 votes, to pass.

Such a vote would put Clinton in a difficult position because regional and U.S. officials believe there are easily enough countries in favor. Diplomats have been scrambling to reach consensus on a compromise resolution but as of late Monday had been unable to do so.

The administration is toeing a delicate line as it reaches out to Cuban leader Raul Castro and by extension his ailing brother Fidel by lifting restrictions on money transfers and travel to the island by Americans with family there.

Cuba agreed over the weekend to a U.S. proposal to resume immigration talks with Washington that former President George W. Bush suspended in 2003 and to negotiations on restarting direct mail service between the two countries. It has also proposed exploring cooperation on counternarcotics and -terrorism as well as on disaster preparedness.

But the Castros have repeatedly said they want a full lifting of the decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba, something the administration has refused to consider without reforms. That stance has left the United States increasingly isolated.

Clinton will attend Tuesday's meeting as the representative of the last country in the Western Hemisphere without full diplomatic ties with Cuba.

El Salvador had been the only other one, but in his first act as president, Funes on Monday restored his country's diplomatic relations with Cuba that had been broken in 1961.

The signing ceremony to commemorate that event was held in the same room at the presidential palace in San Salvador where Clinton and Funes later held their joint press conference.

[Associated Press; By MATTHEW LEE]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.